ProShare Advisors LLC Decreases Position in W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB

ProShare Advisors LLC trimmed its position in W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) by 15.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 60,962 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 11,235 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC’s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $4,671,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Compass Financial Services Inc purchased a new position in shares of W.R. Berkley in the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Twin Peaks Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in W.R. Berkley in the 2nd quarter valued at $27,000. Elevation Point Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in W.R. Berkley in the 2nd quarter valued at $34,000. Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in W.R. Berkley by 40.2% during the 3rd quarter. Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 523 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Westside Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in W.R. Berkley by 100.0% during the 3rd quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. now owns 528 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 264 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Truist Financial set a $80.00 target price on shares of W.R. Berkley and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 27th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 6th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on shares of W.R. Berkley from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 27th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $75.00 price target (down from $76.00) on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets cut W.R. Berkley from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $64.00 price target for the company. in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $69.67.

Insider Activity

In related news, major shareholder Sumitomo Insurance Co L. Mitsui acquired 20,000 shares of W.R. Berkley stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 12th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $71.99 per share, for a total transaction of $1,439,800.00. Following the acquisition, the insider owned 56,576,652 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,072,953,177.48. This represents a 0.04% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Over the last three months, insiders bought 7,750,064 shares of company stock worth $532,603,787. 23.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

W.R. Berkley Stock Down 2.9%

Shares of NYSE WRB opened at $69.60 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $26.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.64, a P/E/G ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 0.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.37 and a quick ratio of 0.37. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $69.13 and a 200-day simple moving average of $72.11. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 1 year low of $59.55 and a 1 year high of $78.96.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 26th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.14 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $3.18 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.18 billion. W.R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.10% and a return on equity of 18.35%. The company’s revenue was up 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.13 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current year.

W.R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 29th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 15th were issued a dividend of $0.09 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 15th. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.5%. W.R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.09%.

About W.R. Berkley

W. R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE: WRB) is a publicly traded insurance holding company that underwrites and sells commercial property and casualty insurance, specialty insurance products, and reinsurance. Headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut, the company operates a portfolio of underwriting businesses that focus on niche and specialty commercial risks, offering coverage tailored to industries such as transportation, construction, professional services and other commercial lines.

The company’s product mix includes primary and excess casualty, property, professional liability, environmental and other specialty lines, together with treaty and facultative reinsurance solutions.